Teenagers pretend to be Holocaust victims on TikTok

A disturbing new trend on social media platform TikTok encourages teenagers to mimic Holocaust victims.

In what appears to be a warped tribute to the Nazis’ victims, #pov (point of view) videos with the hash tag #holocaustchallenge see people wearing makeup to make themselves look like concentration camp prisoners while role-playing what they imagine to be the horrors of the Holocaust.

In one video, a TikTok user called @kyla.atkin is seen in a black and white clip, wearing dark make-up around her eyes, mouthing the words: “I died by gas chambers in Auschwitz.” Another sees @livvy.povs jerk her head around, appearing to mimic a Nazi pushing around a Jewish prisoner. In yet another, filmed by @thatsnadia, a young woman in deathly make-up says: “I was put in Auschwitz camp at 19 with my family… One day they told us to go to the shower. My mum and I were holding hands.”

In an opinion piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency entitled ‘Why are teens pretending to be Holocaust victims on TikTok?’, Maddy Albert writes: “This is traumatising content and the definition of trauma porn. By sharing these videos in such a nonchalant and triggering way, on a platform mostly used for silly jokes and distractions, you disrespect the families of Jews and the many others who perished in the Holocaust.”